Reign of error chapter summary
My favorite chapter from Diane Ravitch’s book was chapter 3 -
Who Are Corporate Reformers?
Corporate reformers are mostly the people who have the money to throw at education. According to Ravitch reformers have the right goals in mind “ they want excellent education for all, to close the achievement gap, innovation and effectiveness, they want the best of everything for everyone.” This is why this chapter stood out to me so much, because reformers want what is best for education but they are going about it all the wrong way. Reformers are privatizing schools, lowering teacher qualifications and focusing too much on test scores. The school reforms are turning into a for profit business and focusing less on the actual education. She claims the “the reform is actually a “corporate reform” instead of educational. A big problem with the privatization of schools is that the money follows the child. Whenever a child leaves a public school the government money goes with them, even though most private schools and charter schools are privately funded. This can be damaging to the public system because that money is not necessarily used on that one student it is spread throughout the system. One of the most astounding parts of education reform is that it is not a one sided argument both democrats and republicans are involved. There are many foundations, both democrat and republican including the Goldwater Institute, The Freidman Foundation for Choice, and the Policy Innovators in Education Network. Ravitch refers to these as “Think Tanks”. Major corporations fund these think tanks to promote their shared agenda. This agenda generally includes privatization. These foundations include the Bill and Melinda gates foundation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. So basically the people with the money (Bill and Melinda Gates) get what they want out of reform because they are the people with money. It all comes down to that in the end, who has the money to put into the reform. The Gates foundation is the largest in the United States giving hundreds of millions in education grants. The gates support charter schools and test based teacher evaluations, because it is their money that is what they get. Barack Obama is surprisingly also a supporter of corporate reform. When he was elected to office his supporters expected him to eliminate No Child Left Behind, but instead he installed Race to the Top. Basically awarding money to the schools with the best test scores, not the schools who need more funding to improve. This was very hypocritical compared to Obama’s speech in 2012 claiming, “One thing I would never want to see is schools teaching to the test”. That is exactly what Race to the Top was advocating. I think this chapter is so important because educational reform will happen when there is support and the majority of support comes in the form of money. If the big foundations like the Bill and Linda Gates foundation stopped putting there money towards charter schools and started giving it to public schools the entire system could change. It is all in the hands of the reformers, the people with power. If the foundations with money and the president decided they no longer wanted to privatize and no longer wanted everything to be based off of test scores then there would be reform. They need to be educated on the options there are instead of sticking to what is known.
My favorite chapter from Diane Ravitch’s book was chapter 3 -
Who Are Corporate Reformers?
Corporate reformers are mostly the people who have the money to throw at education. According to Ravitch reformers have the right goals in mind “ they want excellent education for all, to close the achievement gap, innovation and effectiveness, they want the best of everything for everyone.” This is why this chapter stood out to me so much, because reformers want what is best for education but they are going about it all the wrong way. Reformers are privatizing schools, lowering teacher qualifications and focusing too much on test scores. The school reforms are turning into a for profit business and focusing less on the actual education. She claims the “the reform is actually a “corporate reform” instead of educational. A big problem with the privatization of schools is that the money follows the child. Whenever a child leaves a public school the government money goes with them, even though most private schools and charter schools are privately funded. This can be damaging to the public system because that money is not necessarily used on that one student it is spread throughout the system. One of the most astounding parts of education reform is that it is not a one sided argument both democrats and republicans are involved. There are many foundations, both democrat and republican including the Goldwater Institute, The Freidman Foundation for Choice, and the Policy Innovators in Education Network. Ravitch refers to these as “Think Tanks”. Major corporations fund these think tanks to promote their shared agenda. This agenda generally includes privatization. These foundations include the Bill and Melinda gates foundation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. So basically the people with the money (Bill and Melinda Gates) get what they want out of reform because they are the people with money. It all comes down to that in the end, who has the money to put into the reform. The Gates foundation is the largest in the United States giving hundreds of millions in education grants. The gates support charter schools and test based teacher evaluations, because it is their money that is what they get. Barack Obama is surprisingly also a supporter of corporate reform. When he was elected to office his supporters expected him to eliminate No Child Left Behind, but instead he installed Race to the Top. Basically awarding money to the schools with the best test scores, not the schools who need more funding to improve. This was very hypocritical compared to Obama’s speech in 2012 claiming, “One thing I would never want to see is schools teaching to the test”. That is exactly what Race to the Top was advocating. I think this chapter is so important because educational reform will happen when there is support and the majority of support comes in the form of money. If the big foundations like the Bill and Linda Gates foundation stopped putting there money towards charter schools and started giving it to public schools the entire system could change. It is all in the hands of the reformers, the people with power. If the foundations with money and the president decided they no longer wanted to privatize and no longer wanted everything to be based off of test scores then there would be reform. They need to be educated on the options there are instead of sticking to what is known.